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January 2012 Cruising Expenses

Feb 16th, 2012
by Sara.
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It’s a good thing we spent over two weeks away from any towns or cities in the month of January because we sure make up for it when we get into town! It’s hard to resist $2 ice-cream cones heaping with handmade ice-cream, $1 tacos, towering $6 burgers with fries. We were even delighted to pay $1 each for long, hot showers in La Paz. We are taking a trip later in February up to San Diego to gather supplies for our Puddle Jump and have been giving our Visa a workout in the process. I’ll have the whole nitty gritty of what it has cost us to prepare for a major ocean crossing in next month’s expense report (which includes the repair of our nearly-new ICOM IC-7000 HAM radio that blew out in Agua Verde and the cost of a spare radio as we realized again just how important this piece of communication equipment is when there is nobody else in VHF range…). But thankfully for January, it was just regular-old-living-the-easy-life-in-Mexico expenses.

S/V Wondertime’s January 2012 Cruising Expenses

activities – $20
books – $13
bus/taxi – $26
DAN membership – $55
diesel – $315
dinghy dock – $3
dinghy gas – $8
eating out – $196
fishing gear – $11
gifts – $150
groceries – $387
banda ancha internet – $36
laundry – $22
showers – $2
supplies – $40
toys – $16

total: $1,300 USD

December 2011 Cruising Expenses

Jan 17th, 2012
by Sara.
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To be honest, we were a little nervous adding up this past month’s expenses. What with Christmas presents, eating out nearly everyday at the many amazing restaurants and taco stands around Banderas Bay, recertifying and refilling dive tanks given to us by friends in San Francisco along with hookah gear, a trip to Costco, and filling the diesel tank again we thought that our budget would be a disaster. While it’s still a boat buck above our target, considering all the fun we had — and a few projects checked off — in Banderas Bay in December we still consider living down here a serious bargain.

S/V Wondertime’s December 2011 Cruising Expenses

boat bits – $135
books/magazines – $16
bus/taxi – $49
cat care – $76
cell phone – $29
clothing – $135
diesel – $222
dinghy gas – $34
dive/snorkle gear – $329
eating out – $387
galley – $9
gifts – $239
groceries – $605
internet – $36
carousel ride – $2
laundry – $35
moorage – $146
movie tickets – $21
mp3 album – $9
personal care – $36
supplies – $85
toys – $4

total: $2,639

November 2011 Cruising Expenses

Dec 12th, 2011
by Sara.
4 comments

After a mere month in Mexico, we have already reached cruising budget nirvana! We were delighted to find in November that cruising Mexico really is still cheap. Here’s what we got for just a touch over $1500 USD for the month of November: time at the dock in both Ensenada and at the luxurious new Marina Riviera Nayarit in La Cruz, full diesel tanks, four 6-month Mexico tourist visas and one Temporary Import Permit for the boat, a three-year birthday party, a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the gourmet marina restaurant I didn’t need to lift a finger for, countless taco cart visits, trips to the ice-cream freezer, and ice-cold Pacificos consumed at various palapa bars, taxi ride home with a huge load of groceries, a used Seatiger 555 windlass (story coming soon…), laundry dropped off and picked up washed, dried and folded, two haircuts, and high-speed cell internet service right on our boat. Living in the lap of luxury at thrift store prices — thanks in large part to our excellent exchange rate (nearly 14 pesos per $1USD).

S/V Wondertime’s November 2011 Cruising Expenses

bus/taxi – $12
cat supplies – $5
cell phone – $32
clothing – $30
diesel – $263
eating out – $264
gifts – $20
groceries – $260
haircuts – $13
tourist visas – $78
internet (banda ancha cell card) – $50
laundry – $34
marina water/electricity – $11
moorage – $242
mp3 download – $7
skype – $10
souvenirs – $44
temporary import permit for boat – $50
used windlass – $150

total: $1,575

October 2011 Cruising Expenses

Nov 26th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

Perhaps I should label this month “Cruising in California Expenses” as well as September. The money continued to bleed out like crazy and we hope crossing the border will finally put a tourniquet on our budget once and for all. We knew our anchoring choices were limited in Southern Cali and we’d have to pay to moor the boat at times but ouch. (Why we didn’t join a yacht/cruising club to get free/reduced moorage I have no idea. Sigh.) We also bought lots of new bits for Wondertime (some new halyards, a whisker pole, engine oil, spares, fans, guidebooks and all sort of other junk to stuff in our lockers “just in case”). We stocked up on our favorite foods at Costco and Trader Joes as well as tubes and tubes of Toms of Maine toothpaste. There was also a trip to Disneyland which was worth every penny.

S/V Wondertime’s October 2011 Cruising Expenses

allowance (Leah) – $8
activities – $317
boat bits – $2,269
boat insurance – $54
books – $59
camera – $38
car rental – $227
cat supplies – $63
cell phones – $23
clothing – $50
computer – $211
diesel – $211
DVDs – $20
eating out – $359
faxes & copies – $15
galley – $78
groceries – $964
hotel – $104
laundry – $27
mexican fishing licenses – $180
guidebooks – $141
moorage – $629
parking – $15
personal care – $186
propane – $14
rental car gas – $37
supplies – $268
toys – $18
wifi – $10

total: $6,595

September 2011 Cruising Expenses

Oct 16th, 2011
by Sara.
3 comments

September was definitely not a typical month budget-wise but it still hurts more than a little to look at the numbers. We’d been putting off several major items for our arrival in the Bay area, namely purchasing a new dinghy and adding two additional solar panels. But even not including those two items we’re still well above $2k. I guess we may have had a little too much fun in San Francisco! We did have access to a car for a day so we did major stock-up trips to Costco and Trader Joes; I’m sure a lot of what we purchased will be consumed months from now. Or maybe not…we are amazed at how much two little girls eat!

S/V Wondertime’s September 2011 Cruising Expenses

allowance (Leah) – $10
boat insurance – $54
boat stuff – $3,866
books – $15
car rental – $55
cat supplies – $44
cell phone – $23
computer – $76
diesel – $477
eating out – $337
fishing gear – $7
gas for dinghy – $41
groceries – $1,344
kindle – $150
laundry – $34
moorage – $122
postage – $14
propane – $20
souvenirs – $134
supplies – $55
toys – $26
transportation – $29
welding – $75

total: $7,008

August 2011 Cruising Expenses

Sep 12th, 2011
by Sara.
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Yet another benefit of exploring the Canadian wilderness was that we were away from town much of the time in August and were able to make our monthly cruising budget goal of $1200. The cell phone bill was actually from July but we paid it in August so it’s in there. Of course, we’ll be spending the next month and a half in California so our budget is going to be blown away (but we’re trying hard to keep it reeled in). Thankfully most of November will be spent off Baja so we should be able to balance it out a bit which is what this is all about.

S/V Wondertime’s August 2011 Cruising Expenses

activities – $20
allowance (Leah) – $8
beer – $87
boat bits – $41
boat insurance – $50
books – $10
cell phone – $55
clothing – $18
diesel – $103
eating out – $119
fishing gear – $65
fishing licenses – $14
groceries – $440
laundry – $44
moorage – $94
personal care – $2
postage – $3
propane – $18
showers – $12
souvenirs – $6
supplies – $12

total: $1,221

July 2011 Cruising Expenses

Aug 4th, 2011
by Sara.
4 comments

As promised, we are sharing our cruising expenses for all the world to see. The totals were both not so shocking and a little shocking at the same time. (Check out that eating out category! Must work on that one immediately.) We spent a great deal more than we normally expect to on boat bits this month as we were still working on the boat a good portion of this past month (the new mast tangs alone were $930CAD). Thankfully we won’t be anywhere near a West Marine for another six weeks. We also purchased the Canadian charts and the Dreamspeaker guidebook for the west coast of Vancouver Island which we should have purchased used before we left. Sadly, the numbers are a little lower than reality as we have been in Canada since July 11th and our dollar has been worth only $0.95 of Canadian dollars and I’ve not made the conversion in my notes. We also are currently paying 1% International Service Fees when using our credit union ATM/debit/Visa cards which also is not in the totals. Here you go:

S/V Wondertime’s July 2011 Cruising Expenses

activities – $41
allowance (leah) – $8
boat bits – $1,236
books & charts – $326
cat supplies – $10
clothing – $20
computer – $11
diesel – $364
eating out – $376
garbage – $2
dinghy gas – $51
groceries – $354
laundry – $11
moorage – $127
personal care – $36
shower – $1
supplies – $39
toys – $46
transportation – $13
wine/beer – $77

total: $3,149

 

 

Countdown to cruising: 9 days to go

Jun 20th, 2011
by Sara.
1 comment

Nearly 150 lbs of old stainless wire...$98 in our pocket.

Every few days we give a little thought to our budget, which has been completely overrun to put it mildly. Thankfully, the few things we have sold here and there, such as the stainless wire we took to Tacoma Metals today in exchange for nearly $100, plus the selling of our car and other miscellaneous items sold via Craigslist will help replenish our pool titled “life savings” aka “boat self-insurance policy”  we promised we weren’t going to touch. It doesn’t matter much at this point: all the major items have been purchased and it just reinforces that we are going to have to pick up a little work here and there to keep Wondertime shipshape and be able to afford things like a new(er) dinghy as our Costco clearance model is on its last legs. Our last major purchase at this point: food. And bags of wine to tuck deep in the bilge for, you know, extra buoyancy.

Shopping and Chopping

Jan 14th, 2011
by Sara.
4 comments

We made a trek up to Seattle last week, to make a round at our favorite marine stores and gather some goods for this month’s projects. We had a list of things we actually wanted to buy, a list of things we were thinking of buying, and then a mental list of things we just wanted to look at to plan future projects. As we walked around Fisheries Supply, however, our eyes sort of started glazing over and we just about tripped over our jaws at some of the prices on shiny pretty boat gear. We could have easily dropped several boat bucks (fyi: these come in denominations of $1000) on just items to get a few small projects done.

Now, we have spent a fair number of boat bucks in our sailing lifetimes so I’m not sure why the prices of boat gear continue to shock us every time we go into a marine store needing something more involved than a few screws or a light bulb. I think it’s that prices are really going up steadily on most marine stuff (particularly metal items due to the skyrocketing cost of raw metals) but it also has to do with trying to work with a solidly fixed outfitting kitty.

One item on our list were tiny stainless steel sail track stops. These are basically a 1″ piece of curved stainless steel with a screw through it; they affix to the bottom of the mainsail and mizzen sail tracks to keep the sail slides from falling off of it. These retail for $48 apiece. Being we are a ketch we needed two of them. Thankfully, our account price was about $15 less, but still. (Note to new boat owners: get a business license! You will save thousands of boat bucks.) We stood there for a while, trying to wrap our brains around paying $75 for two tiny shiny pieces of hardware to replace the old, sort of broken ones we found at the second hand marine store last year. It didn’t take us long to come up with a solution: fix the old broken ones we already have by buying better fitting screws (cost: $2).

We then meandered over to the block section. Wondertime currently is outfitted with delightful old wooden blocks. While they certainly look charming, they are as heavy as bricks and need varnishing. Do we have time to varnish blocks? Ha. Sailing gear — the kind that will make the boat easier, more fun, and faster to sail is at the top of our list. Our hulk of an Isuzu Pisces diesel engine slups up something like 0.75 gallon/hour; at $3-5 gallon for diesel anything that helps us sail more will save us money (and stinky hot misery) in the long run. We now have shiny lovely (and surprising quite affordable) stainless Garhauer blocks as the top candidates in replacing our wooden mainsheet, staysail and genoa blocks.

Moving on to the plumbing section, we started adding up all the parts we’d need to install fresh and saltwater foot pumps in the galley, and a freshwater foot pump in the head sink to help save our precious freshwater supply. (You use a lot less water pumping it with your foot rather than just letting the faucet run.) We already have one uninstalled Whale Gusher foot pump on board so we were looking at purchasing two more, plus the spigots and related hosing and miscellaneous fittings. After mentally adding everything up, our heads started to spin a little at all the dollars adding up and in the end we decided to demote the freshwater foot pumps and just install the saltwater pump in the galley which we will use for washing dishes, hands, and cooking.

Our morning continued on in this way; as we worked through our list of project stuff we would either realize that the cost just did not justify the importance, or we’d have a spontaneous brainstorm and come up with another, less expensive way to get the same thing done. With Michael on the job for only 5 more months, our projects are getting cut left and right as our remaining budgeted dollars slip out.

On our way home, we made our last stop at West Marine’s gorgeous new Lake Union store and picked up the #1 item at the top of our list: our new 55 lb. Rocna anchor. As our boat — and lives — depend on staying firmly attached in an anchorage, a big, beautiful strong anchor is non-negotiable.

Cracking down

Dec 12th, 2010
by Sara.
Comments are off for this post

FestiveSo far, December has consisted of mainly three activities:

  1. gearing up for the big Christmas holiday ahead
  2. staying dry
  3. cracking down.

On the staying dry front we have to say that we could not do it without our trusty old Kenmore dehumidifier. Now, this monstrosity, which lives balanced precariously on a battery box in our engine room is obnoxiously loud and creates so much heat that we don’t need to run our other space heaters. This is a good thing of course as it’s typically been 40 degrees outside. We also dump out a gallon and a half of water after a day of running it. This is water that is no longer free to drip steadily off our cold bronze ports and down the uninsulated parts of the hull inside of lockers soaking everything not in tupperware. Also a good thing. Our Shade Tree has also been performing marvelously as a Rain Tree and lets us leave and enter the boat in relative dryness.

With two weeks left until Christmas the girls are as excited as can be about Santa coming for a visit. Since having children, we have been given a whole new appreciation for all that our parents went through to give us the wonderful holidays of our childhood. Which is to say, this holiday is freaking stressful. We are aware that we are on a bit of a teeter-totter with this, our last Christmas in the U.S. for a while. We are happy to see our girls so excited about this holiday, but at the same time we don’t want to build it up too much, for fear that they’ll be disappointed when the next few Christmases are celebrated under palm trees and Santa is a little (lot) more stingy with gifts.

What Michael and I are most excited about this year is New Years; when the clock ticks over to 2011 we will be able to say that we are going cruising “this year.” Not five years from now, not in two years. THIS year. It’s fairly mind-blowing since we’ve been scheming this for so many years. But this also means that we’ll officially have six months left until the dock lines are permanently stored in the bilge. Which means that we need to find that List we’ve got buried around here somewhere and get cracking.

Which brings me back to our Christmas prep; all of this shopping has made me realize that it’s time to crack down on that too. While we’ve always been conscious of what we are spending each month, truthfully certain frivolous expenses have slipped through: a trip through the Starbucks drive-through (Starbucks for four=$ouch!), the random things that find their way into my Target cart, that great deal on a toy at the Goodwill I can’t pass up. We are not going crazy on gifts this year, both because I don’t want Christmas to be about the material stuff to the girls, but also because we’ve realized that our list of “stuff” we need to go cruising just continues to grow (and I’m talking about gear like good tethers and harnesses for all — not negotiable).

What the New Year will bring is a new intensity in our prep to leave next June; whether it’s time spent or something to be purchased, if it doesn’t get us one step closer to leaving then it’s got to be forgotten. This part is difficult, but with the reward actually in sight it’s pretty exciting and come January we’ll attack that List with renewed vigor.

In the meantime, we’ll sit back and watch the joy on the faces of our little girls as small gifts appear under our sparkling boat tree, holiday music cranked up so as to be heard over the humming dehumidifier and raindrops splashing on Wondertime’s decks.

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